TRANSACTIONS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.* THE last compilation of the
Royal Historical Society possesses many points of interest to the student of history. Not the least impressive among the several papers which the book contains is the Presidential Address at the commencement by Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff. In his opening words, the President of the Society recalls a certain conversation which took place between the late Lord Sherbrooke and himself on a bench in the House of Commons many years ago about Thucydides. The uses of the great historian to the modern statesman seemed a fitting subject for an article. The two legislators discussed this question. There were probably few men in England who knew more about Thncydides than Mr. Robert Lowe, and one can readily understand that the question of the possible influence of that author upon modern statesmen exercised his mind. Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff evidently pondered over the matter long after the conversa- tion with Mr. Lowe, and the result was that he selected for his presidential address the question whether the study of Thucydides is useful at all to modern statesmen, and if so, to what extent. The lecturer rightly separates the question of the genius of Thucydides as a historian from that of the actual influence which his writings are capable of exerting upon the modern English statesman.
Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff does not share Mr. John Ruskin's opinion that the Peloponnesian War was the suicide of Greece, "the central tragedy of all the world," as Mr. Ruskin picturesquely describes it. It is probably true that there has been a tendency to exaggerate the significance of the Pelo- ponnesian War, owing to the large place which it occupies in the classical studies of our public-schools. At the same time, we can scarcely concur in the opinion expressed in this lecture that the political importance of Greece only began with Alexander. It is true that we find that statement qualified with the words : "for many purposes." But there was un- questionably a political vitality of thought as well as of action in the earliest periods of Greek history. We are glad to observe that Sir Mountstaart Grant Duff deprecates the commonplace notion that there is any real analogy between the Greek democracies and that which is known as the modern or nineteenth-century democracy of this country. He correctly observes that "the institution of slavery of itself vitiates all comparisons." The lecturer points to the speeches and other reflections found in the works of Thucydides rather than to his narrative, as the sources to which we must look for anything likely to be of much use to the modern statesman.
There are many excellent quotations from Thucydides, and the paper, as a whole, affords much material for historical and political reflection. There is a suggestive reference to a speech of the Athenian envoys :—" The ruler of the day is always detested by his subjects. And should your empire supplant ours, may not you lose the goodwill which you owe to the fear of us P " The maxim might well be remembered, we are told, " by the not very wise people who talk about British rule in India not being ' sympathetic.' I wonder when a ruler belonging to another nation was really felt to be gym_ pathetic' by the ruled P" Sir M. Grant Duff recalls a saying of Mountstuart Elphinstone, that if you asked any native of India belonging to one of the most powerful races, whether he would like to be rid of British rule, he would, if he spoke the truth, say, "Most assuredly ! " " If, however, you went through every possible alternative, suggesting that he should be ruled by any one of the peoples of India save that to which he himself belonged, he would shrink with horror and say that he infinitely preferred the British flag to that."
Referring to a speech of Cleon, in which the orator points out the evils of the demagogue, we are told the story of a party Whip who, talking of his "steady supporters," re-
* Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. New Scrim. Vol. VII. London: Longman, Green, and co. 1893.
marked, with enthusiasm, to a friend, "They are the best brute votes in Christendom ; " and some of us have heard of the old Scotch Member who, at the end of a long Parliamentary life, remarked : " I have heard a great many speeches which have changed my opinion, but never one which has changed my vote." This is probably the experience of many of the supporters of Mr. Gladstone's present Government. Again, there are further reflections on the evils of party government, which we cordially commend. There is an elaborate quota- tion on this subject from Thucydides, some sentences of which we here transcribe :-
" The tie of party was stronger than the tie of blood, because a partisan was more ready to dare without asking why. (For party associations are not based upon any established law, nor do they seek the public good ; they are formed in defiance of the
laws and from self-interest.) If an enemy, when he was in the ascendant, offered fair words, the opposite party received them not in a generous spirit, but by a jealous watchfulness of his actions. Revenge was dearer than self-preservation. Any agreements sworn to by either party, when they could do nothing else, were binding as long as both were powerless. But he who, on a favourite opportunity, first took courage and struck at his enemy when he saw him off his guard, had greater pleasure in a perfidious than he would have had in an open act of revenge ; he congratulated himself that he had taken the safer course and also that he had overreached his enemy and gained the prize of superior ability. In general, the dishonest more easily gain credit for cleverness than the simple for goodness ; men take a pride in the one, but are ashamed of the other. The cause of all these evils was the love of power, originating in avarice and ambition, and the party spirit which is engendered by them when men are fairly embarked in a contest. For the leaders on either side used specious means, the one party professing to uphold the constitutional equality of the many, the other the wisdom of an aristocracy, while they made the public interests, to which in name they were devoted, in reality their prize. Striving in every way to overcome each other, they committed the most monstrous crimes ; yet even these were surpassed by the magnitude of their revenges, which they pursued to the very utmost ; neither party observing any definite limits either of justice or public expediency, but both alike making the caprice of the moment their law. Either by the help of an unrighteous sentence, or grasping power with the strong hand, they were eager to satiate the im- patience of party spirit. Neither faction cared for religion ; but any fair pretence which succeeded in effecting some odious pur- pose was greatly lauded. And the citizens who were of neither party fell a prey to both ; either they were disliked because they held aloof, or men were jealous of their surviving."
The translation is that of the late Professor Jowett. This paper, besides containing valuable citations from Thucydides, is replete with political and scholarly reflections worthy of the experienced statesman who uttered them. In his con- cluding remarks, Sir Mountstnart Grant Duff urges the claims of a new work upon Greek history. He suggests that there is yet scope for a historian who shall tell us more than we have yet learnt of such men as Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon; of Menacles, the architect of the Propylaea; of Phidias, and Myron and Polycleitus, of Sophocles, Euripides, Anaxagoras, and Aristophanes. Less detail about skirmishes, and a little more about these men, is, in his opinion, a still unsatisfied want. A great deal more is required to be known "about the persons and things which made Greece really great." " Will no one," he asks, "bring them into relief in a history of Greece which shall give proper prominence to im- portant political and military events, but pass over everything that is not essential to the work which Greece, and especially Attica, had to do in the world,—namely, to raise the human intellect and to open the windows for it in every direction' P " Such a work as that of Grote does not fulfil this particular view, rather should the scheme of such an undertaking resemble that which was followed by M. Renan in his history of Israel. And we are reminded that Renan held that "if there was one miraculous history there were certainly three miraculous histories,—that of Israel, the people who created and developed religion as we understand the term ; of Greece, which invented Art and began to apply right reason to the study cf all things ; of Rome, which by its force and its administration made it possible for the other two to com- bine and gradually to conquer the world,"—a remark in which Renan, after his usual fashion, used the critical word " miraculous " in a peculiar sense of his own.
The subsequent papers which compose the volume before us treat of various bypaths of European history. There are some notes on the family of Betonn in connection with some letters of James VI. of Scotland. This is the second paper or chapter in the volume, and comes from the pen of Henry Elliot Malden, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society This contribution shows much research. A fac-simile auto- graph letter of James VI. is produced, dated February, 1595, of which the following is a transcription Richt traist freind, We greit yow hairtlie weill : The last sommer resolveing to plenische our Parkis, we directed our trustie counsulor the laird of Halhill to yow and sum utheris our guid subjectia affecting our thrift and weill to' e quhat guidis we myght have of benevolence for that effect. To quhome ye offering sum for your pairt, the same hes notwithstanding restit unsenttit for in defalt of not voiding of our Parkes to ressave thame. Quhilk being now done, be a decreit of removeing obteint again the Keiperis and possessoris thairof, we have directed this barar our sirvand, and eirand, to crave ye number of guidis that ye will bestow for help of our guid intentioun and to signifie to yow ye tyme and place quher and quhan thai salbe send : As alsua to desyre yow effectuouslie to have the same in reddines upon our next adverteisment As ye will kyth affected toward our weill and furtherance of that gude turne and will do us speciall and thankfull pleassur to be rememberit as occasioun sail present. Sua we commit you to God. From Halyruidhous ye xvij day of Februar 1595 JAMBS R."
The state of Scotland at that period is illustrated by many prints which are brought out in this instructive paper. There is an appendix giving a copy of the privileges and services contained in the characters and precepts of Clareconstat, granted by the Laird of Balfour to his vassals at Kilkenny, after 1543.
The third paper is contributed by Dr. Emil Reich on "The Magyar County," and constitutes a study in the comparative history of municipal institutions. It throws light upon the state of Hungary in the Middle Ages, and is well worthy of perusal. The Druids of Ireland form the subject of the next chapter in a learned treatise by Professor Julius von Pfiugk-Harttung. It is translated from the German. There are some curious verses introduced into this paper which indicate a connection between early Christian and Druidical hymns. Anglo-Saxon history finds a place in the volume by an erudite dissertation by F. Liebermann on the "Institute ()anti alioramque regum Auglorum." Some light is thrown upon the English Constitution about 1100. Considerable research is manifested.
The Rev. Professor Cunningham, D.D., writes an intro- duction to MS., communicated and translated by W. H.
Russell, on the Laws of the Mercers Company of Lichfield. About two hundred and seventy pages of this book are devoted to the Inquisition of 1517, inclosures and evictions, edited from the Lansdowne MS. by L. S. Leadam. This forms the largest amount of material in the book. It con- tains a preface, and separate disquisitions on the counties of Norfolk, Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Hamp- shire, and the Isle of Wight. If the volume contained no more than this one contribution, it would be patent that the Royal Historical Society is no idle corporation. The Society have assiduously set themselves the task of elucidating diffi- cult points and obscure facts of history. The progress of their research is eminently satisfactory, and we are justified in believing that they will yet accomplish valuable work in the collection, in scientific and literary form, of data for future historians.
Previous page
